Back to Back 2

Deception

Tilting her head in thought, Emilie took a moment to respond. "What ever happened to the other Miraculouses?"

"She gave all of them out to her holders."

"Even the Butterfly?"

Felix paused again before slowly shaking his head. "I don't know."

"Hmm," she murmured. Then she looked over at him once more. "I guess we have some work to do."

The two stood there for a moment before Felix responded. "So, what now? What's the plan?"

"For now we just need to keep watch. Pay attention and look for patterns. Once we can predict what they're doing and where they are, we can start searching for the Butterfly Miraculous. Once we have that, we'll be able to confront them together."

He let the words sink in. Then he nodded.

"Do your best to stay close to them, especially Marinette. The more we learn about her, the faster this will happen."

"Okay," he said.

Emilie smiled at him. "I knew I could count on you. Now go on upstairs."

Felix nodded again and took a step toward the staircase, but stopped to ask a question. "You're still making Shepherd's pie tonight, right?"

A momentary pause, a split second longer than it should have been. "Of course," she answered through her teeth.

"Great, thanks."

Emilie watched him ascend the stairs for a moment before spinning around. Once the sound of a door closing reached her ears, she finally let her expression fall. That fake smile of hers was quickly replaced with a scowl as she turned toward the study and made her way inside. After locking the door she walked up to an oversized painting, pressed some hidden buttons, and descended down into the repository under the house.

The plan was coming together, with the first few steps already done. It was even easier than she was expecting to trick Adrien and Felix into believing that she was Amelie. But, she supposed, why wouldn't they assume it was her? As far as they knew, Emilie was in London with Gabriel. So that was easy enough.

Then to add to that, Felix was foolish enough to fall in love with Marinette. Emilie thought that she would have to somehow create a problem between him and Adrien, but he went off and created one himself. And she was delighted with the golden opportunity that landed right in her lap.

Now they could move ahead.

When she reached the cryogenic pod at the far end of the room, Emilie sighed and placed her hand on it. With a click the covering slid back, revealing an unconscious woman inside.

"Wakey, wakey," Emilie murmured, rasping her knuckles against the glass. But when nothing happened after a minute, she snarled and slammed her hand down forcefully.

With the noise, the woman inside finally opened her eyes and tried to sit up. The pain on the side of her head, however, forced her to close her eyes and lie back down. Putting her hand to the spot, Amelie felt a tender lump that had already swelled up to the size of an egg.

Regaining some bearings, Amelie finally opened her eyes again to find her sister looking at her through the glass. "Emilie?" she asked, confused. "Where are we? What is this?" she added, pressing her hands against the glass covering. But there could be no response as she suddenly remembered the last thing that happened, causing Amelie's face to fall. "Wait a second, you hit me! Wh... why would you do that?" She pressed harder against the glass. "Let me out of here!" she demanded, starting to feel panicked. "Emilie, let me out!"